mordekhi v yisraela

Torah: Va’era (And I appeared), Sh’mot (Exodus) 6.2-9.35
Haftorah: Yechezk’el (Ezekiel) 28.25-29.21
Suggested Messianic Writings reading: Revelation 16.1-21

Shalom,

“I appeared to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya`akov as El Shaddai, although I did not make myself known to them by my name, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh (YHVH) [Adonai].” These words open this parashah, but a reading without an understanding of the Hebrew might be confusing here. Other versions read something similar to, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.” Yet the Sacred Name was used by the Patriarchs (ADONAI or HaShem is seen in most Jewish-published Scripture as a substitution for the Sacred Name; other Bibles often use terms such as the LORD). Some examples: (Gen 12.7) “So he [Avraham] built an altar there to ADONAI, who had appeared to him.” When Avraham was stopped from sacrificing Yitz’khak, he then built an altar and sacrificed the lamb that had been caught in the bush, and “Avraham called the place ADONAI Yir’eh [ADONAI will see (to it), ADONAI provides].” (Gen 26.25) “There he [Yitz’khak] built an altar and called on the name of ADONAI.” The Sacred Name is used as early as Gen 2, at the creation of man. So why did ADONAI make the above statement to Moshe?

The key is found in the word known; “I did not make myself known to them….” Know in the Hebrew is ידע, yah-dah, “to know by experience; a personal, intimate knowledge.” This is the same term used after creation, when Adam yah-dah Eve, and they had children. In other words, the Patriarchs had an intimate acquaintance with the Creator as El Shaddai, the G-d who was their provider. Now He was about to reveal Himself to Israel, the Keil & Delitzsch Commentary notes, “as the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises.” The Ramban (a Jewish Sage) understood the name El Shaddai as describing G-d when He performs miracles that do not openly disrupt the normal course of nature. Never before had the Creator overruled His creation to aid mankind. Israel would soon see this happen. The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible has this description of know,  ידע, yah-dah:  “The pictograph for dalet [now written as ד] [here I must apologize, the pictographs would not copy through to the website] is a picture of a door. The ayin [now written as ע] is a picture of the eye. Through the eyes one experiences his world and learns from it. Combined these pictures mean ‘the door of the eye’. The eye is the window into man’s very being. Experience is gained through observation. Knowledge is achieved through these experiences.” Even if one does not have physical eyes, he has “spiritual eyes”. The Patriarchs had experienced the Creator as El Shaddai, who cared for them without “openly disrupting the normal course of nature;” now the nation of Israel would experience the Creator as ADONAI, who will show His power to care for them in a whole new dimension, He will indeed “disrupt the normal course of nature”.

Further, Rabbi Hertz, Chief Rabbi of Britain pre-WWII, wrote this in his Torah Commentary: “The emphasis is on the words I am ADONAY. They are not intended to inform Moses what God is called, but to impress upon him that the guarantee of the fulfillment of the Divine promises lay in the nature of the Being who had given the promises. Even as the phrase ‘I am Pharaoh’ (Gen 41.44) is merely an assertion of royal authority and power, in the same manner, ‘I am ADONAY’ means ‘I am He who has the power and the faithfulness to fulfil any promise vouchsafed by Me. I have promised Redemption, and I shall fulfil that promise; I will and can do it.’”

Next, the Creator told Moshe, “I have heard the groaning of the people of Isra’el, whom the Egyptians are keeping in slavery; and I have remembered My covenant.”  And then He promises four things, which are the primary themes of the Pesakh (Passover) Seder: 1) I will free you; 2) I will rescue you; 3) I will redeem you; and 4) I will take you as My people. Moshe went to the people of Israel and related these promises, but they wouldn’t listen to him because they were so discouraged. I think we can all relate to the Israelites, for when you are discouraged, a promise of “pie in the sky” means nothing until you have fork in hand and a slice in front of you. But the mercies and miracles of G-d did eventually come.

There is one little phrase in this parashah that reveals the sum of the Creator. In Sh’mot 9.14, ADONI relates to Pharaoh, through Moshe, these significant words: “I am without equal in all the earth”. In other words, “all that you hold dear or important, all that you worship, is nothing compared to My Glory, My Holiness, My Worthiness. It is Me whom you should worship and obey.” And those words are not just for Pharaoh, or just for world leaders – although if a few more world leaders would heed these words, the world would be in better shape. But for every human, the ultimate goal should be just as Sha’ul wrote in Philippians 3.7-8, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Messiah. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing the Messiah Yeshua as my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain the Messiah.”

The days are getting darker, and many spiritual forces in this world are fighting against the Creator and His people. Anti-Semitism grows stronger in the world as the prince of darkness fights to keep the Messiah from returning to His people. But his days are numbered, and Yeshua will one day appear to all. The prophet Isaiah wrote these words of the Creator (45.22-23), “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’” Sha’ul reiterates this point in Philippians 2.9-10, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Yeshua the Messiah is ADONAI, to the glory of God the Father.” Many will bow and make this confession in fear, for their time is up; others will be singing and rejoicing. We have only this lifetime to make that choice. A wise Jewish Sage once gave this bit of advice: “Repent one day before your death” (Perkei Avot 2.15). Since we don’t know when that will be, perhaps we should live today as if tomorrow we die; better yet, live today as if today we die.

Today we are given the opportunity to know, ידע, yah-dah, Him through the Son, the Messiah, Yeshua: “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Timothy 1.12).

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God’s shofar; those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise; then we who are left still alive will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord. So encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4.16-18).

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Torah: Shof’tim (Judges), D’varim (Deuteronomy) 16.18-21.9

Haftorah: Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 51.12-52.12

Suggested Messianic Writings: Mattityahu (Mathew) 3.1-17

Shalom,

Moshe continues in this parashah with more instructions for Israel to carry out after they enter the land that HaShem is giving to them. Back in Sh’mot (Exodus) 18, Moshe’s father-in-law Yitro (Jethro) encouraged Moshe to discontinue being the only judge for Israel, as he would wear himself out, but rather to appoint various leaders to help with all the judgments for the people. Moshe heeded this advice, and Israel’s first judicial system was set up. Now Moshe is giving the commandment that there shall be judges established in every city in Israel after he is gone and Israel has crossed over into the land.

HaShem set a high standard for the judges of the land – they shall judge the people with righteous judgment, מִשְׁפַּט צֶדֶק, mish’paht tseh-dehk. The definition of צֶדֶק tseh-dehk, righteous, is “accurate, fair, just”. The protocol was that the communities were to be responsible for appointing their judges; the sages understood this to mean that if the community had a hand in appointing unrighteous judges, then the community was to be held responsible if justice was perverted.

“You are not to distort justice….” The KJV says, “Thou shalt not wrest judgment….” Wrest is an older English word; the Hebrew is תַטֶּה nah-tey, which means “to stretch or spread out; by implication to bend away (including moral deflection)”. The Message Bible translates the line as, “Don’t twist the law.” Following that instruction, leaders are told “do not show partiality or favoritism, and do not accept a bribe”. Bribe in Hebrew is שֹׁחַד, sho-khad, meaning simply, “a gift presented to one in return for a favor”. Whatever the purpose of the “gift,” a leader is not to take such when dispensing justice, “for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of even the upright,” or put another way, “a bribe… undermines the intentions of the best of people.”

“תִּרְדֹּף צֶדֶק צֶדֶק, tseh-dehk tseh-dehk teer-doph, Justice, only justice, you must pursue;” or as another translation states, “Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue”. One reason that the word is repeated in the Hebrew is to emphasize two different aspects of the word. Some of the ancient commentators said that in the current context, it means that to pursue righteousness in general, one must pursue a righteous court. Another opinion given, one a little more personal, is that we are to: 1) pursue righteousness through our own deeds, and 2) pursue righteousness as a gift from HaShem. For example, in D’varim (Deuteronomy) 10.16, HaShem commands Israel to “circumcise the foreskin of your heart,” in other words, they were told to cultivate a right attitude which would then produce righteous behavior. Later, in D’varim 30.6, HaShem promises that He Himself will “circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your children, so that you will love Adonai your God with all your heart and all your being”. HaShem will provide the gift of righteousness.

Righteousness is spoken of often in the Tanakh. Yesha’yahu (Isaiah), writing of the suffering of the coming Messiah, says in 53.11, “After this ordeal, he will see satisfaction. By his knowing [pain and sacrifice], my righteous servant makes many righteous; it is for their sins that he suffers.” Much of what Yesha’yahu wrote can apply to both Israel and Yeshua, but not this verse. Only the Messiah makes many righteous after suffering for their sins. If we acknowledge that Mashiakh (Messiah) Yeshua makes righteous those who accept Him as Lord and Master, we have received the gift of righteousness; on the other hand, we cannot accept such a gift and do nothing with it, for this is a gift that we must pursue constantly by what we do, by how we live. In other words, we receive the gift of righteousness through faith, by trusting our Creator God, while at the same time we pursue righteousness in all that we do. We dare not abuse either way of obtaining righteousness.

Note that the commandment says to “pursue” righteousness – in fact, “you must pursue righteousness”. The Hebrew word for pursue is רדף, rah-dahf, which means “to run after”. Rabbi Hertz’ commentary (Rabbi Hertz was Chief Rabbi of the British Empire pre-WWII), regarding the entire phrase, states, “These passionate words may be taken as the keynote of the humane legislation of the Torah, and of the demand for social righteousness by Israel’s Prophets, Psalmists and Sages.” Shoes that perfectly fit both feet – if the justice system pursues justice/righteousness, then justice will be applied to the land. If the community that appoints the judges pursues righteousness, then the judge will be just, and the land will live in righteousness. A nation goes the way of its leaders. This is from Torah, if anyone thinks this is being bound up under Law, what are the options? Unrighteousness, injustice, oppression, unfairness, dictatorship! Choose this day whom you will serve. The G-d that Avraham, Yitz’khak v’Ya’akov (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) served is the same G-d that Kefa, Yochanan v’Sha’ul (Peter, John & Paul) served.

The prophet Mikhah, (Mee-kha, Micah) wrote of justice (6.8): “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does ADONAI require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The apostle Sha’ul (Saul/Paul) put it another way, in the letter to the Philippians (4.8), “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Think about (or on) in Greek is logizomai, (log-id’-zom-ahee), which means, “to take an inventory, to consider”. If one “thinks” long enough about something, one “acts” on those thoughts.

What is the purpose of this pursuit of righteousness, righteousness/justice, justice? The answer is given in the rest of verse 20: “So that you may חיה, kha-yah, live (def: come to life, give life, be healed, keep alive, stay alive) and ירשׁ yah-resh, possess (def: to take possession of, inherit, dispossess; to occupy (by driving out previous tenants, and possessing in their place)) the land ADONAI your God is giving you.” The pursuit of righteousness/justice will bring a righteous/just reward.

Hertz’ commentary notes that, “Justice is not the only ethical quality in God or man, nor is it the highest quality; but it is the basis for all the others. ‘Righteousness and justice are the foundations of Thy throne,’ says the Psalmist [89.14]. The whole idea of the Divine rests on them.”

Only when we – from the individual to the community to the government – follow the advice, nay, the commandment of our Creator, will all go well. Where does the pursuit of righteousness, righteousness/justice, justice rank in your life? Sha’ul wrote similarly of this dual pursuit, that of chasing after what we have received (a Biblical paradox), in 1 Timothy 6.12, “Fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you testified so well to your faith before many witnesses”. Take hold literally means, “to seize”. You see the double paradoxical pursuit? We have been called, we have received a high calling, but to retain it, we must pursue it, we must seize it! How do we seize eternal life? Sha’ul actually gave the answer in the preceding verse (6.11): “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.”

Someone once said that life can be so “daily”. I believe that a great way to take the daily-ness out of daily life is to be in hot pursuit of the righteousness offered by the Creator, which is the gift of eternal life that is given freely, yet with such a high price, by the Messiah Yeshua. He is coming to separate the wheat from the chaff (Matt 3.12). He is coming to set up an eternal kingdom that will continually pursue “righteousness, righteousness/justice, justice”. Author Jerry Bridges wrote a book on the subject, entitled, The Pursuit of Holiness, wherein he states, “Scripture speaks of both a holiness we have in [Messiah] before God, and a holiness we are to strive after. We can ignore neither [Messiah’s] role nor our own if we are to successfully pursue holiness. It is as simple as refusing to smudge the truth on a tax return or as complicated as forgiving the person who has most viciously hurt us. [We need to] take holiness out of the realm of the impossible and bring it into the real world of our daily lives and decisions.”

Israel (I speak of Jewish people globally in this thought) desperately needs to pick up that pursuit that their forefathers began in the days of Moshe. A true pursuit of righteousness (far beyond any good that humanity can do on its own) can only do one thing – reveal the King of Righteousness for who He is, Yeshua HaMashiakh, Yeshua the Messiah, the true Judge who will judge justly. “Awake! Awake, Tziyon [Zion]! Shake off the dust! Arise! Break out into joy! Sing together, you ruins of Yerushalayim [Jerusalem]! For Adonai has comforted his people, he has redeemed Yerushalayim! Adonai has bared his holy arm in the sight of every nation, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation (yeshua) of our God, Yeshuat Eloheynu, אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְשׁוּעַת” (from this week’s Haftorah). The pursuit is on; got your running shoes ready?

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Torah: B’ha’alotkha (When you set up), B’midbar (Numbers) 8.1-12.16
Haftorah: Z’kharyah (Zechariah) 2.14(10)-4.7
Suggested Messianic Writings: Revelation 11.1-19

Shalom,
וַיֹּאמֶר משֶׁה קוּמָה יְיָ וַיְהִי בִּנְסֽוֹעַ הָאָרֹן
Viy’hee been-so-ah ha-a-ron vi-yo-mer Moshe “Ku-ma Adoni”
And when the ark journeyed, Moshe said, “Arise Adoni
וְיָנֻֽסוּ מְשַׂנְאֶֽיךָ מִפָּנֶֽיךָ וְיָפֻֽצוּ אֹיְבֶֽיךָ
V’ya-fu-tsu oy-veh-kha v’ya-nu-su m’sa-neh-kha mee-pa-neh-kha.
May your enemies be scattered, and those that hate You flee from Your presence.”

This phrase, from B’midbar (Numbers) 10.35, is sung or chanted in synagogues around the world as the Torah scroll is removed from its cabinet and carried around the room. Those in attendance touch the Scroll cover with a Bible, a Siddur (prayer book), or the tzitzit from a prayer shawl, never the fingers, then touch that object to their lips. The scene pictures the original giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, from Sh’mot (Exodus) 24.3 & 7, “Moshe came and told the people everything ADONAI had said, including all the rulings. The people answered with one voice: ‘We will obey every word ADONAI has spoken….’” Then he [Moshe] took the book of the covenant and read it aloud, so that the people could hear; and they responded, ‘Everything that ADONAI has spoken, we will do and obey’” (emphasis added). Those who love ADONI and His Torah are in essence saying the same thing when the Torah is so honored in our day – we will do and obey.

To Messianics, the Torah scroll, written on a lamb’s skin, represents the Lamb of G-d, Yeshua, and that is why we honor the scroll. We do not worship the scroll, but we honor it as the written word of ADONI, which in turn represents the living Word, Yeshua. And as we understand the fact that Yeshua has been around eternally from before the Creation as a member of the mysterious triune G-dhead, we understand better His statement from Matthew 28.20, “…obey everything that I have commanded you.” Simply put, if we love Him we obey Him; if we don’t love Him, we don’t obey Him. If a commandment of His is relevant, it is to be obeyed, end of story. Somehow many followers of Yeshua have come to the conclusion that the commandments can be picked through and sorted according to personal desire; or worse yet, that the majority of anything to the left of Matthew 1 is irrelevant. Others have trouble with anything past D’varim (Deuteronomy). 1 Yochanan (John) 2.3-4 says this, “The way we can be sure we know him [Yeshua] is if we are obeying his commands. Anyone who says, ‘I know him,”’ but isn’t obeying his commands is a liar — the truth is not in him.” Whether a commandment is from Leviticus or Galatians, our Creator expects us to respond in an affirmative manner. We read in Luke 24.27: “Then, starting with Moshe and all the prophets, he explained to them the things that can be found throughout the Tanakh concerning himself” (emphasis added).

So if Yeshua is in it all, from Genesis to Revelation, then we should honor it all. The immediate understanding of Torah is the five books of Moshe, but the word Torah has such definitions as, “Law, teaching, instruction, direction, to point the way one is to walk in life”. David Stern in the Complete Jewish Bible makes an astonishing but correct translation of Hebrew 8.6: “But now the work Yeshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs [earthly priests], just as the covenant he mediates is better. For this covenant has been given as Torah on the basis of better promises” (emphasis added). According to Stern’s commentary, “If the New Testament is Torah, then the Torah has not been abrogated. Instead, the New Testament has been given the same status as the Torah of Moses; that is, it has come to have the highest authority there is, the authority that accompanies promulgation by God himself. One might say that Torah has been expanded – or better, that Torah has been made more explicit.” [For further understanding of his translation and usage of this terminology here, I suggest reading David Stern’s Jewish New Testament Commentary for a nearly two-page look at this terminology.]

What then is the purpose in us honoring the Word, to obey the Word? Simply this: “For we are His workmanship, created in [Messiah Yeshua] for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2.10). And from Isaiah 43.21, “The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise.” All that we do is to honor Him; all that we do should be a form of praise unto Him. Ancient Israel did not separate the sacred and the secular. That is a good lesson for us.

The words of Moshe above signaled not only a statement of Adoni’s authority as Israel set out from an encampment, but also a prophetic word that will ring true in these last days. “As the ark journeyed…,” that is, as the entire Word of ADONI, and thus the G-d and Messiah of Israel, is held to a higher standard of love, respect and obedience by His children – Jew and Gentile alike, then the G-d of Israel will arise and scatter His enemies, and those that hate Him will flee from His presence. Those who trouble Israel had better beware. Z’kharyah (Zechariah) caps it off perfectly for us, from 2.12(8), a verse just prior to this week’s reading: “Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘Anyone who injures you injures the very pupil of my eye.’”

שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!